The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-09-04
CHAPTER XIX.
A GALE FROM THE NORTHEAST.


There only chance for the doomed
men-that before dozen hours had elapsed the
| federals were masters of the town. AT sunrise
| James and Gilbert Burbank would be shot.
| Their prison was watched. Mr.. Harvey's
| house: how could they escaped
The capture of Jackson Vile could not be made
! by the troops landed at Fernandina. who could
not abandon that i'm Important position in the north
| of Florida The task must be that of the gun
boats: to accomplish it the bar must be crossed.
| Then when the line of boats driven back.
| the fotilla could anchor opposite the town.
| Once they had the town under their guns, the
| militia would beat a retreat to the marshes.
Texar and his partisans would certainly follow
| them to avoid the well-deserved reprisals The
respectable citizens would then resume the
place from which they had been hunted with
such indignity, and negotiate with the federal
representatives for the surrender
Was it possible to effect this passage Of the
bar, and within the time7 Was there any way
of overcoming the obstacle which the want of
water put in the way of the cunboatsf 1t was
very doubtful, we shall see.
After sentence was pronounced Texar and TIL
commander of the militia went down to the
wharf TO inspect the lower course of the river.
Their attention fixed on the bar
Nothing fresh has been reported2" asked
Texar. as he stopped at the end of the stockade
Nothing" said the officer. "a reconnois-
sance / sent out to the north tells me that the
federals have not left Fernandina for Jackson
vile. Probably they are kept in observation on
the Georgian frontier until their hotlla has
forced the channel"
"Have any troops come from the south from
ST Augustine, and crossed the St. Johns at Pr
colata?"
II think not. Dupont has only troops enough
to occupy the town, and his object ia to blockade
the whole coast from st. Johns to the furthest
inlets OF Florida. We have nothing to fear
from that SIDE Texar!"
''Then the only danger is from the 1ota if it
clears the bar below which it has been at
anchor for three days"
THAT is so. And the question will be decid-
ed in few hours. Perhaps after ALL the enc
mys object is to close the river so as to cut off
the communication between St. Augustine and
Fernandina 1t is most TO his interest not to
occupy Florida at present but to stop the con-
traband of war coming in from the south. The
expedition has no other o5iect-at least I think
not. If it had, the troops at Amelia island
would have been on the march to Jacksonville"
You may be right" said the Texar. 1T
doesn't matter! But wish this question of the
bar over"
ut will be settle this very day,
'If the gunboats DO come. what will you do?'
"Act according to my orders, and take the
militia into the interior, to avoid all con-
tact with the federals If they occupy the
towns, let them. They cannot keep them long
for they will be cut off from their communica-
tons with Georgia and the Carolinas and we
shall soon retake them"
But" said Texar IF they are masters of
Jacksonville only for day, must expect re-
rich planters. and Abolitionists will return to
power, and then But it shall be! Mol
And rather than abandon the town"
The Spaniard did not finish his thought but
it easy to see his meaning He would not
surrender the town to the federals. who would
place it in the hands of the magistrates he had
supplantsd He would give it to the flames; and
perhaps his measures were taken with view to
this work of destruction Then he and his fol-
lowers would retire after the militia. and in the
marshes of the South find inaccessible retreat
where they could await events.
But there nothing of this to be feared il
the gunboats could not clear the bar and the
time had come 10 settle the question.
The people came crowding onto the wharves
A moment was enough show why they had
come. Deafening shouts arose.
1.-The gunboats comingm
mo! they have not moved"
1.-The is open"
'"They going to try il at full speed!"
Look! look!"
$50 they arel" said the commander of the
militia There is somethng Look. Texar"
The Spaniard did not reply. He never took
his eyes from where the horizon was closed by
the line of boats drawn across the stream, Half
a mile below were the spars and tunnels of the
eun-vsssels. a thick smoke was rising, and
driven by the wind came floating up to Jackson
Vile
full tide, trying to cross the bar at all cost
even if he scraped his keels as he came? No
wonder there violent excitement among the
crowds on the banks of the ST. Johns.
And the excitsms nt increased as some thought
they saw something, and others thought they
did not.
'Thev have gained half cable,"
"No! they have not moved further than il
their anchor was still down.
s.Ther0 is one movipgu